De Kooning, Pollock and Barnett Newman

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Transcript of De Kooning, Pollock and Barnett Newman

Willem de Kooningdozen of different paintings superimposed on one anothercolliding colors, brushwork and formspallette knife scrapingshere and there a figure is in focusunfinished - perpetual state of redefinitionextreme spatial oppositions - breasts read as flat but fully rounded forms, energetic brushwork creates a background for the figure but at the same time absorbs it.various active planesmenacing and sensuousattack on closed systems , finality and any fixed way of looking at things."slipping glimpses"open - ended working process - Action PainterBarnett Newmanthought everything through in advancemetaphysical ideas and highly articulatefought against any kind of artistic subject matter that was tied down to an objectnotion of the sublime - direct intuition of universal experience; it consists of pure spiritualityinspired by Caspar Davids' "Monk by Seaside"incomprehensible vastnessman's natural desire for the exaltedInterest in Science and cosmic themesPollock's drip paintings "Cathedral" and "Number 1"laid canvas on floor and used brushes as sticks, hovering just above the surface and using gravity and arm and body movements.translate the act of painting into an adventure of self realization, "I am nature"demand that the viewer surrender intellectual control while empathizing with the energetic color and movementoverwhelm viewer with huge scale and textural richnessinfluenced by Kandinsky - spontaneity and spiritual contenteach drip painting is unique and an "event" influenced heavily by existentialism and the realization and search for "self""Number 1" has multiple impressions of artist's own hand in upper right, which represents visceral immediacy of the artist's personal presence.Jackson PolluckautomatismDrew inspiration from African and Native American Art and the Mexican MuralistsPermitted the unconscious to determine the form"drip paintings" and "all-over" composition

Onement I1948 - breakthrough in paintingwas going to be a background for another piece that sat in the studio for almost a year untouchedNewman keeps looking at it until he got it - it wiped out the problem of composition and forced the viewer to apprehend it in terms of idea.He incorporated "zip" in almos all subsequent works Onement represent Atonement, a concept for the Jews, which was marked as Yom Kippur, Holy Day to reflect on creationsymbolizes Genesis - an act of creationZip down middle represents God's separation of lightness and darknessIt is a primal actcolor symbolizes earth and Adam - red - browncelebrates human creativity and Adam and Eve conjoinedDe Kooning, Pollock and Barnett Newmanclassically trainedborn in Rotterdam, the Netherlandsshows skill in renderings of earlier still lifes1935 - Federal Art Project in New YorkArshile Gorky was closest friendPeggy Guggenheim invites him to show at Art of This Century but he refuses because he was just beginning to find his own style and he did not like the Surrealist artists in her circle.Egan Gallery - first one man show - 1948associates chiefly with abstract artist but never abandones figurative imageryinfluenced by Picassoshapes evolve from Human anatomical parts Reuses shapes by tracing them - such as in his "black and white" paintingsorganized "The Club" - through the purchase of a loft, for artists to relax together and do work.Excavation

New York - no environment more intellectually sophisticatedimpressions of city's excavation siteabstract train of thoughtborn in Cody, Wyoming 1912youngest of 5 sons who all wanted to paint due t mothers' influencefather was a failed truck farmer - economic instabilitychanged name from "Paul" to "Jackson" - more manlydropped out of High School and went to New Yorkstudied under Thomas Hart Benton at The Art Students League -The Arts of the West" - rhythmic system of interlocking curves and countercurvesJungian psychoanalysis - acute depression and alcoholismJung affected art by encouraging his searh for totemic images with a universal unconscious meaningmoved in with Krasner who is said to have stabilized him more successfully than the psychoanalysis. - began his successful career.Pollock worked impulsively and directly onto the canvas - it was a recorded spontaneity"Mural" gestture carries expressive contentdark curving verticals have a figural reference influenced by Native American pictographs - Indian San PaintingsImages emerge inevitably emerge from unconscious, through free association rather than as a deliberate iconographylarge 8-by-20 feet scale forces artist to work on floor like the Navajo sand painterseven distribution of compositional interest = most revolutionary featureShimmering Substancehandled entire surface as an even field of gestural strokesdevoid of any overt imageryFreedom made possible by the eveness of the distribution of visual activity.influenced by Spinoza, philosopher who ranked knowledge in 3 levels. 1) data and rules learned without any reference to the intellect 2) things learned by deduction or logic 3) (the highest order of knowledge) immediate knowledge, using reason, but obtained through a direct intuition to the essence of things, an insight that went beyond reason.Vir Heroicus Sublimismetaphysical absolutenessantithesis of the precious objectLatin title means "man heroic and sublime."hidden square in middle = perfection of the center color field evokes and infinate universe and completely lacks texture or sense of human interventionzips convey painters presenceThe station of the CrossNewman was not a religious zealot, he intended to deal with the abstract and universal experience which each of the subjects evokedLema Sabachthani - Why? Why did you forsake me? - this represents the first station, an absolute ring of spirituality, a condemnation of ChristThe right edge with more clouded human doubts about death and condemnation is painted roughly along an edge.There is a constant dialog between the right and the left.Newman experimented with sculpture as well which convey more a sense of place. ( the place in which one can be)